Three new iPhone models rumored for 2013, including the bizarre 4.8-inch iPhone Math

Everyone loves a good Apple rumor, so here’s a particularly juicy one to enjoy over your morning coffee. According to the China Times, Apple will release not one, not two, but three new iPhone models this year, based on information received from sources working with Apple’s suppliers. The report continues to say the first two new phones will arrive in June, followed by another around October.

So far, not all that juicy. However, here’s the fun part: The already rumored iPhone 5S will arrive in June and will be accompanied by another model tentatively named the iPhone Math, sporting a 4.8-inch screen. Yes, despite only just increasing the size of the iPhone’s screen to 4 inches, Apple has apparently seen the light and will join arch-rival Samsung by offering a device with a 4.8-inch display. Or … not.

If, in some bizarre twist, Apple does have a phone with a 5-inch screen in the works, it makes sense to give it a striking name. But would anyone – let alone Apple, a company which takes an incredibly conservative approach with its nomenclature – call a phone the Math? Quite apart from the word sounding completely wrong to everyone outside of the U.S. and Canada, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Calling it out as either an odd, lost-in-translation error or a weirdly creative ruse seems almost redundant. At best, this is an internal name.

Production to begin in April

Towards the end of the year, Apple will supposedly launch another iPhone, which hasn’t been named in the report, so in keeping with the theme we’ll call it the iPhone Geography, and its claim to fame is a 12-megapixel camera. A future iPhone being given a higher megapixel camera is quite logical, and the rumor is certainly more credible than the iPhone Math. No mention was made of a cheaper iPhone, which has been rumored by several other sources over the past month, but the similarly mythical Apple iTV was discussed by the China Times’ sources, and it’s said to arrive before the end of the year.

The report goes on to provide some surprisingly precise information on the companies building the components for the three new iPhone models. For example, Foxconn and Coxon will produce the chassis, Hon Hai Precision will take care of the manufacturing, Largan Precision the camera modules (as it does with the iPhone 5) and the circuit boards will come from Flexium, Zhen Ding and Fujikura. Components will start coming together in March and production is rumored to begin in April.

For a rumor, the talk of an iPhone 5S built by these companies for release in June doesn’t sound too crazy, but all the while it’s accompanied by the iPhone Math, we just can’t take any of it seriously.